Check out new music on this week’s SNSS from artists like Common, Kendrick Lamar, Stalley, Miguel, Big Boi, Spree Wilson, 50 Cent, Saigon, STS, J. Cole, and more. Shout to the Pac Div homies for calling in as well.

In other news, if you missed our interview with Yuna, you can watch it right here. Many thanks to her for coming through and performing a few amazing acoustic tracks for us live in the studio. Enjoy!

During one of the 329821329834230 times I saw the Pac Div homies rock live at SXSW, I remember tweeting that they make the exact kind of hip-hop I like the most. “Fallin'” off their Mania release is just such a record. While I may take excursions into other sub-genres, it’s essentially the same experience I have while consuming other forms of media: fantasy land is fun to visit, but I live in the real world and relate to that real music. Exhibit A above.

As I’ve mentioned on the blog and Twitter, I traveled down to Austin last week for SXSW. In addition to all the incredible shows I saw and artists I chopped it up with, I had the privilege to play in the first annual HoopxHang 3 on 3 tournament. John Gotty of the Smoking Section (my personal favorite blog because of the care they put in their write ups and their excellent musical taste), Nick Huff of Hard Knock TV, and Nike Basketball organized the event and invited about 50 artists, DJ’s, managers, bloggers, record label reps, and other industry folks to take their talents to Doris Miller Auditorium.

Anyone who knows me personally knows that as much as I live and breathe music, sports has always been 329318239128x the passion in my life. I’ll go play any game, anytime, anywhere, so I was just excited to get a little run in during the trip. Also, every time these rappers come through Sound Session, you should hear them go on and on about their skills on the court. After all that talk, I finally got to play with a few of the homies! Topping it all off, Nike came through with free gear from head to toe. #winning!

Special shout to my two teammates: Kenny, a friend of The Smoking Section’s John Gotty, and Chris (pictured below) from Hollyweerd. We didn’t know what squad we would be on before we began, but we meshed pretty nicely.

After winning our first two games (yours truly with the game winners in each…#humblebrag), we were ousted in the semi-finals against the eventual champions…these guys:

That would be Push Montana (who turned into Khalid El-Amin against us), Brock (Diamond Supply), and Dutch (Smokers Club). They had a solid mix of skill, size, and intensity that proved too much for the competition as they knocked off the Pac Div homies (below) in the Championship.

Despite what had to be a logistical nightmare, the event went off without a hitch and everyone had a great time. Hats off to everyone who organized and participated and thanks again to Gotty and Nick for the invitation. Looking forward to it being bigger and better next year…perhaps we could we see a little 5 on 5 action? We need to get these rappers in shape!

Be sure to check out the official recap with more pictures and stories over at The Smoking Section.

Apologies for the slight delay in posting up the archive of SNSS, but Monday was both Valentine’s Day AND my birthday, so I took the night off. Sue me. Aside from some technical difficulties recording our breaks for the first 20 minutes of the show, we’ve still got all the dopeness for you below. Shout to the Pac Div homies for calling in as well!